If you have many contacts in another address book program, you can import them into BBDB. Two popular formats are comma-separated value files (CSV) and vCard files (VCF).

Project XXX: Import a CSV File into BBDB

To import a CSV file into BBDB, you will need csv.el from http://ulf.epplejasper.de/downloads/csv.el and lookout.el from http://ulf.epplejasper.de/downloads/lookout.el . Save both files to your ~/elisp directory. Make sure that your ~/elisp directory is in your load-path by adding the following line to your ~/.emacs:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/elisp")

Export your contacts as an Outlook-style CSV file, then open the file in Emacs. After loading the following code, call M-x wicked/bbdb-import-csv-buffer to merge the CSV data into your address book. Emacs will try to update existing records based on the e-mail address or name provided, creating new records if necessary. After Emacs updates the records, the relevant records are displayed in the *BBDB* buffer. Here is the code to make that work:

ch6-bbdb-import-csv-buffer.el:

(require 'lookout)
(defconst wicked/lookout-bbdb-mapping-table-outlook
  '(("name" "Name")
    ("net" "E-mail Address")
    ("notes" "Notes")
    ("phones" "Mobile Phone"
     "Home Phone"
     "Home Phone 2"
     "Home Fax"
     "Business Phone"
     "Business Phone 2"
     "Business Fax"
     "Other Phone"
     "Other Fax")
    ("addr1" "Home Address")
    ("addr2" "Business Address")
    ("addr3" "Other Address")
    ("lastname" "Last Name")
    ("firstname" "First Name")
    ("job" "Job Title")
    ("company" "Company")
    ("otherfields" ""))
  "Field mappings for Outlook-type CSVs exported from Outlook, Gmail, LinkedIn, etc.")

(defun wicked/bbdb-import-csv-line (line)
  "Import LINE as a CSV, trying to merge it with existing records."
  (let* (record
	 (name  (lookout-bbdb-get-value "name" line))
	 (lastname (lookout-bbdb-get-value "lastname" line))
	 (firstname (lookout-bbdb-get-value "firstname" line))
	 (company   (lookout-bbdb-get-value "company" line))
         (job       (lookout-bbdb-get-value "job" line))
	 (net       (lookout-bbdb-get-value "net" line))
	 (addr1     (lookout-bbdb-get-value "addr1" line))
	 (addr2     (lookout-bbdb-get-value "addr2" line))
	 (addr3     (lookout-bbdb-get-value "addr3" line))
	 (phones    (lookout-bbdb-get-value "phones" line t)) ;; !
	 (notes     (lookout-bbdb-get-value "notes" line ))
         (j (concat job ", " company))
	 (otherfields (lookout-bbdb-get-value "otherfields" line t))
	 (addrs nil)
         name-search
	 (message ""))
    (if (string= company "") (setq company nil))
    (if (string= notes "") (setq notes nil))
    (if (string= name "") (setq name nil))
    (setq name-search (concat "^" (or name (concat firstname " " lastname))))
    (setq record (or (bbdb-search (bbdb-records) nil nil net)
		     (bbdb-search (bbdb-records) name-search)))
    (if record
	(progn
	  ;; Matching records found, update first matching record
	  (setq record (car record))
	  (let ((nets (bbdb-record-net record)))
	    (unless (member net nets)
	      ;; New e-mail address noticed, add to front of list
	      (add-to-list 'nets net)
	      (bbdb-record-set-net record nets)
	      (message "%s: New e-mail address noticed: %s"
		       (or name (concat firstname " " lastname)) net)))
	  ;; Check if job title and company have changed
	  (when (or job company)
	    (cond
	     ((string= (or (bbdb-record-company record) "") "")
	      (bbdb-record-set-company record j))
	     ((string= (bbdb-record-company record) j)
	      nil)
	     (t
	      (bbdb-record-set-notes
	       record
	       (concat "Noticed change from job title of "
		       (bbdb-record-company record)
		       "\n"
		       (bbdb-record-notes record)))
	      (message "%s: Noticed change from job title of %s to %s"
		       (or name (concat firstname " " lastname))
		       (bbdb-record-company record) j)
	      (bbdb-record-set-company record j)))))
      ;; No record found, create record
      (if (and addr1 (> (length addr1) 0))
	  (add-to-list 'addrs
		       (vector "Address 1" (list addr1) "" "" "" "")))
      (if (and addr2 (> (length addr2) 0))
	  (add-to-list 'addrs
		       (vector "Address 2" (list addr2) "" "" "" "")))
      (if (and addr3 (> (length addr3) 0))
	  (add-to-list 'addrs
		       (vector "Address 3" (list addr3) "" "" "" "")))
      (setq record (list
		    (wicked/lookout-bbdb-create-entry
		     (or name (concat firstname " " lastname))
		     (concat job ", " company)
		     net
		     addrs
		     phones
		     notes
		     otherfields))))
    record))
  
(defun wicked/lookout-bbdb-create-entry (name company net addrs phones notes
					      &optional otherfields)
  (when (or t (y-or-n-p (format "Add %s to bbdb? " name)))
    ;;(message "Adding record to bbdb: %s" name)
    (let ((record (bbdb-create-internal name company net addrs phones notes)))
      (unless record (error "Error creating bbdb record"))
      (mapcar (lambda (i)
		(let ((field (make-symbol (aref i 0)))
		      (value (aref i 1)))
		  (when (and value (not (string= "" value)))
		    (bbdb-insert-new-field record field value))))
	      otherfields)
      record)))

(defun wicked/bbdb-import-csv-buffer ()
  "Import this buffer."
  (interactive)
  (let ((lookout-bbdb-mapping-table
	 wicked/lookout-bbdb-mapping-table-outlook))
    (bbdb-display-records
     (mapcar
      'wicked/bbdb-import-csv-line
      (csv-parse-buffer t)))))

Project xxx: Import a vCard File into BBDB

To import a vCard file (VCF) into BBDB, you will need vcard.el from http://www.splode.com/~friedman/software/emacs-lisp/src/vcard.el and bbdb-vcard-import.el from http://www-pu.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/users/crestani/downloads/bbdb-vcard-import.el . By default, these files allow you to import names and e-mail addresses from vCard files exported from various address book programs. Save vcard.el and bbdb-vcard-import.el to your ~/elisp directory and add the following lines to your ~/.emacs:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/elisp")
(require 'bbdb-vcard-import)

Back up your ~/.bbdb file before calling M-x bbdb-vcard-import to import a file or M-x bbdb-vcard-import-buffer to import the current buffer. WARNING: If your vCard file includes fields with multiline values, you may get silent errors. Verify your import by browsing through the displayed entries. If some of them have been misread, revert to your backup ~/.bbdb by closing Emacs and copying your backup over the ~/.bbdb file. To fix the multi-line error, include the following lines in your ~/.emacs:

(defun wicked/vcard-parse-region (beg end &optional filter)
  "Parse the raw vcard data in region, and return an alist representing data.
This function is just like `vcard-parse-string' except that it operates on
a region of the current buffer rather than taking a string as an argument.

Note: this function modifies the buffer!"
  (or filter
      (setq filter 'vcard-standard-filter))
  (let ((case-fold-search t)
        (vcard-data nil)
        (pos (make-marker))
        (newpos (make-marker))
        properties value)
    (save-restriction
      (narrow-to-region beg end)
      (save-match-data
        ;; Unfold folded lines and delete naked carriage returns
        (goto-char (point-min))
        (while (re-search-forward "\r$\\|\n[ \t]" nil t)
          (goto-char (match-beginning 0))
          (delete-char 1))
        (goto-char (point-min))
        (re-search-forward "^begin:[ \t]*vcard[ \t]*\n")
        (set-marker pos (point))
        (while (and (not (looking-at "^end[ \t]*:[ \t]*vcard[ \t]*$"))
                    (re-search-forward ":[ \t]*" nil t))
          (set-marker newpos (match-end 0))
          (setq properties
                (vcard-parse-region-properties pos (match-beginning 0)))
          (set-marker pos (marker-position newpos))
          (re-search-forward "\n[-A-Z0-9;=]+:")   ;; change to deal with multiline
          (set-marker newpos (1+ (match-beginning 0))) ;; change to deal with multiline
          (setq value
                (vcard-parse-region-value properties pos (match-beginning 0)))
          (set-marker pos (marker-position newpos))
          (goto-char pos)
          (funcall filter properties value)
          (setq vcard-data (cons (cons properties value) vcard-data)))))
    (nreverse vcard-data)))
;; Replace vcard.el's definition
(fset 'vcard-parse-region 'wicked/vcard-parse-region)

Because address book programs don’t use standard labels for addresses and phone numbers, bbdb-vcard-import.el ignores those fields. For example, Gmail uses the generic field “Label” for address information and does not use separate fields for city, state, zip code, and country. While bbdb-snarf.el makes an attempt to extract addresses from plain text, it seems to be less trouble to export to the Outlook CSV format instead, or even to type the address in yourself. If you want to import addresses, see Project XXX: Import a CSV File into BBDB.

Here’s a partial workaround to enable you to import phone numbers. I tested this code with vCard files from Gmail and LinkedIn. To try it out, add the following modifications to your ~/.emacs:

(defun wicked/bbdb-vcard-merge (record)
  "Merge data from vcard interactively into bbdb."
  (let* ((name (bbdb-vcard-values record "fn"))
	 (company (bbdb-vcard-values record "org"))
	 (net (bbdb-vcard-get-emails record))
	 (addrs (bbdb-vcard-get-addresses record))
	 (phones (bbdb-vcard-get-phones record))
	 (categories (bbdb-vcard-values record "categories"))
	 (notes (and (not (string= "" categories))
		     (list (cons 'categories categories))))
	 ;; TODO: addrs are not yet imported.  To do this right,
	 ;; figure out a way to map the several labels to
	 ;; `bbdb-default-label-list'.  Note, some phone number
	 ;; conversion may break the format of numbers.
	 (bbdb-north-american-phone-numbers-p nil)
	 (new-record (bbdb-vcard-merge-interactively name
						     company
						     net
						     nil ;; Skip addresses
						     phones ;; Include phones
						     notes)))
    (setq bbdb-vcard-merged-records (append bbdb-vcard-merged-records 
					    (list new-record)))))
;; Replace bbdb-vcard-import.el's definition
(fset 'bbdb-vcard-merge 'wicked/bbdb-vcard-merge)

Evaluate this code or restart Emacs, then call M-x bbdb-import-vcard again, which should merge phone numbers into your BBDB records.